The variety of sounds created by Jules Vasylenko using a saxophone, often as if itwere a voice, is truly incredible: whispering, fluttering, grunting, buzzing,vocalizations, talkative, percussive, moaning, fog horning, barking, muttering,chirping, bees swarming, wind, trumpeting, squealing, wavering, quacking,squeaking, loud, soft and everything in between, plus many indescribable sounds.What makes this recording great is that all of this coheres into a single voice, avoice of an enhanced human consciousness telling a complex and deeplyemotional and understood story. I've never heard anything quite like it. Recordedlive at Roanoke's Art Rat Studio, the recording, by Tomislav Butcovic, is up front,clear, fully professional, and with none of the deficits of live recording. Releasedin a limited edition, you better get this while you can!

Christina Vantzou's excellent new album, No. 4, on the Kranky label,
has been called
“ambient classical minimalism”
but this characterization downplays
​some of the organic, complex, and enigmatic beauties of the work.

Vantzou says that she used
“sleep and the loosening of time”
in her creative process,and her work clearly reflects
this way of doing things,​with its emotionality
​and global meditative atmospheres.

There are moments in this mesmerizing recording that resonate
with the music of Hildegard von Bingen,
​with voices in a polyphonic ethereal space,
with the polyphony often implied rather than explicit, a neat trick indeed.

This engages the listener's mind
and imagination
​to such an extent
that the listener becomes part of the piece,
creating it in his or her own mind,which is what the best art must always do.

Vantzou's No. 4 has a surprising variety
of sound structures and modes,
which elevate it beyond what is usually thought of as “ambient” music.
​In fact, the work has a strong narrative feel to it; and at the same time a “timeless”, outside-of-history feel.
​This contrast between linear narration and atemporal space creates a fullness and balance to the work as a whole.No. 4 is also impressive for the number of collaborators involved in the project, and for the seamless quality of the sound and structure.
​The collaborators (among them John Also Bennett, Angel Deradoorian, and members of Belgium's Echo Collective) were allowed considerable freedom of spontaneity within a structure of premeditated ideas and textures.
The result is a strong and cohesive
​sonic universe.

Vantzou's No. 4 is available as a download, and as a beautifully designed LP or CD.

More than just an example of blatant nepotism, I have to express my pleasure in this beautiful new recording by Christina Vantzou and my son, John Also Bennett. It consists of a sounding or interpretation of a visual work, a drawing by Zin Taylor on the walls of a gallery. Unlike Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which is a suite of pieces, Vantzou and Bennett's work is a single long piece, (though several tracks are listed), evolving through numerous changes. It owes something to ambient music, but is much more developed and meaty than most such work, perhaps due to its grounding in a large visual artwork. The music involves the use of electronics, flute, and piano, and is, amazingly, a recording of a single live collaborative performance, a performance which fully engages one's attention, and rewards repeated listenings.

This work is a prime example of the interconnectivity and collaborative nature of the arts; for example, the fact that much sound poetry derives from asemic or visual poetry texts, which are sounded or performed as if they were scores, a practice much engaged in today in avant-garde literary, Fluxus, and performance venues today.

“Thoughts of a Dot as it Travels a Surface” is a beautifully produced high-quality LP with a large fold-out print of the art on which the performance is based, and ample textual discussions on the inner sleeve. Don't pass this one up!

Editor's Note: this article on Thoughts of a Dot as it Travels a Surface was originally published at EC on April 12, 2018 in the now obsolete/discontinued REVIEWS section. I have re-published it here on John's page by his request.

JOHN M. BENNETTOPENS HIS MOUTH

John M. Bennett has published over 400 books and chapbooks of poetry and other materials. He has published, exhibitedand performed his word art worldwide in thousands of publications and venues.

​He was editor and publisher of LOST AND FOUND TIMES (1975-2005), and is Founding Curator of the Avant WritingCollection at The Ohio State University Libraries.

Richard Kostelanetz has called him “the seminal American poet of my generation”.

His work, publications, and papers are collected in several major institutions, including Washington University(St. Louis), SUNY Buffalo, The Ohio State University, The Museum of Modern Art, and other major libraries.His PhD (UCLA 1970) is in Latin American Literature.

​The Electronic Cottage website is primarily an online magazine for the publication of lengthy and in-depth articles, essays, and interviews.For those of you who use Facebook I have created an Electronic Cottage Group, which is a casual social gathering place of the EC Community, where EC people can meet, share artwork and news of current projects and releases.The website and this EC Facebook Group are two separate but connected entities of the greater EC Community.